Archive for the ‘Motion Performance’ tag

The 1970s Can-Am wide-body Corvette look is an acquired taste, but if you can dig it – and if you can hustle on out to Indianapolis next month – Mecum will be offering one with the performance to back up those far-out flares.

From the collection of Motion aficionado Dan McMichael of Indianapolis comes this 1974 Motion Can-Am Spyder Corvette prototype, serial number 0001, built by Joel Rosen’s legendary Motion Performance. It was the first of a run that amounted to just four Corvettes total: The other three were painted yellow with small-block power under their domed hoods, but this red one features a 530hp, 466-cu.in. big-block V-8 with a Muncie M22 close-ratio four-speed and a 4.11:1 rear gear. It boasts the fiberglass wide body kit, Plexiglas-covered headlamps, black rear window louvers, six tunneled taillamps and a set of 10-inch-wide tires on the rear, along with a hatch cut into the fastback body, a feature that Corvette coupes wouldn’t adopt until 1982.

If you think the exterior is shagadelic, poke your head inside for a look at the black diamond pleat upholstery (with buttons) lavished on the seats and door panels. And that lever poking out of the console on the passenger’s side? That engages the Hone-O-Drive overdrive unit that Joel Rosen installed on many Motion cars. It’s an auxiliary two-speed planetary transmission that gives you a 1.43:1 overdrive when yanked into gear.

Mecum’s pre-auction estimate for this one-of-a-kind Motion Corvette ranges from $150,000 to $225,000, but it seems like it could be anybody’s guess what this car will bring when it crosses the block at the 26th Original Spring Classic Auction, scheduled for May 14-19 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds in Indianapolis.

You heard here first last month that Joel Rosen is back in the high-performance car building business. He plans to build a dozen 1969 Camaros, but with high-tech stuff to go along with incredible performance. He plans to unveil the cars at SEMA in November and pricing has not been announced, but one of the car’s engines is finished and has left Bill Mitchell’s shop for Sarasota, Florida, said Marty Schorr.
“We are on schedule, and the car will be finished in Sarasota and the Kinsler fuel injection will be installed,” Schorr said.
The 1969 Camaros are actual cars that in some ways resemble the torque monsters Rosen built at his Long Island, New York, shop, Motion Performance, in the 1960s. The new cars will have 540-cu.in. Merlin engines with 600-plus horsepower.
The new cars have electric-powered hoods, no door handles, custom-made tube chassis, carbon-fiber axles, four-wheel independent suspension and giant four-wheel disc brakes. All will have air conditioning and a sound system developed by Sony.
Rosen’s original creations are being sold these days in excess of $250,000.

(This post originally appeared in the September 8, 2005, issue of the Hemmings eWeekly Newsletter.)